More Australians working from home: ACMA

An estimated 5.6 million Australians aged 18 years and over used the Internet to work from home this year according to new research from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

The report, Home is Where the Work is, studied 2400 consumers and 1500 small to medium enterprises (SMEs) during May 2013. It found that 51 per cent of employed Australians were either accessing the Internet outside of normal working hours or were teleworkers who had permission to work from home occasionally.

ACMA also found that 2.8 million Australians (49 per cent) worked from home at least two days a week while 863,000 (15 per cent) worked away from the office one day a week.

Sixty-eight per cent of digital workers used their own laptop or one provided by their employer to work away from the office. Others used smartphones (33 per cent) and tablets (21 per cent) while 30 per cent of respondents accessed the Internet on their PC.

ACMA communications analysis manager Joseph Di Gregorio said that Australians are becoming acclimatised to working outside of normal hours.

“Work is not separate to our personal daily lives. For example, we check our phones constantly for emails,” he said.

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